This Town's Ghoul
by Strikey-Chan
Summary: This town is filled with sickos that eat other people. Cannibals? No, they're not that... Me, Cliff? I'm just a jobless freak. My roommate thinks I should be on drugs. Wait, don't go. If, for argument's sake, you were to write a story with me as the protagonist... It would certainly be a tragedy, wouldn't it?


**This Town's Ghoul**

**Chapter One**

* * *

><p>Jobless. Me. Again. It's happened so much that I can't even bring myself to care anymore.<p>

_Are you able to survive in this city?_ I get that question often from my guardians. It makes me thinking, am I? Answering that question was stupid and a waste of time and thinking. Of course I wouldn't be able to survive. I think I've dropped out of school more than the number of times I've dropped my Nokia.

Twenty years. Of wasteful living. Of Cliff's life. And today, I decided that I wouldn't want to spend another twenty years wasting it anymore.

So I got ready to leave. I told my guardians beforehand, not like they'd care, anyway. Their child was now a fully grown unemployed man - they've probably gotten tired of thinking for me.

So now I'm here. In a quiet inn, taken right out of a 1900s film. Their ground floors looked ancient. The dirty yellow walls smelled like bile and looked like they were cracking. Cool. Vintage.

_This is a shit house._

Okay, maybe calling it a shit house was a bit too far. I mean, vintage was cool.

Everything looked so... Old. The Nokia sitting wrapped in my palms didn't feel like it belonged there.

"Dude, move over, stop hogging the fan to yourself."

I jumped. "Oh- oh! I'm sorry!" The guy that was sharing the same room as me was scary. He glares at people like it's all he knows what to do. And he's ginger. A ginger! Do you know how dangerous gingers can be?

... I don't, but he's glaring, and gingers that glare mean trouble.

Tall. Piercing blue eyes. Obviously from the city because he wears a SnapBack. Ginger, no freckles. Terrifying.

"So... You from the city?" The man asked.

I almost fell out of my bed. Was he talking to himself? Oh no, what if I got myself stuck on a psychopath as my roommate? I've got plenty of roommates before, but none of them were psychopaths.

Psychopaths are even scarier than gingers, I think.

The guy opened his mouth to speak again. Oh lord, what is it this time. I should jut ignore it. Should just ignore him and his stupid ginger hair for the rest of the time I'll be here -

"Dude, you from the city?"

There was no one else in the room. Was he talking to me?

I struggled to make the words come out. "I - I am from the city."

He shrugged. "Cool. Same here."

After that he went back to unpacking his stuff, and I was back to playing Bounce on my Nokia.

_Am I supposed to reply?_ What the fuck? How do you do that? What's conversation even?

"My name's Gray."

Gray? I think Ginger suited him much better.

I faced him to reply, "Oh, uh.. I'm Cliff."

Gray nodded in acknowledgement. "I took this side of the room," he said, nodding to his pile of clothes. "But it doesn't matter. If you've got feng shui issues, feel free to move my shit."

I didn't know what to say, so I just shrugged.

"So why did ya come here? The city's way more better than this dump." Gray commented.

"Uh... Looking for a job." I replied.

"In a place like this? Good luck," he scoffed. "Why not find a job at the city?"

I didn't like this. Why was he being nosy? "I... Dropped out of school."

Gray raised a brow. "Huh. I thought you were looking pretty dope, but maybe I was wrong."

I nodded slowly, while tearing the plastic of a protein bar. I was curious to why he was in this town, too, but I didn't ask, for I was too afraid he would bite my ass.

Gray eyed the bar. "You eaten yet? Wanna go down and grab a bite?"

"... No thank you," I said.

"Get your shoes. You're hungry, aren't cha?" Gray said with a pointed look. "Let's go down to the diner."

Why was he being so nosy? "No," I said, as firmly as I tried to. I could already feel the anxiety starting to tear my stomach in little pieces.

"Do you have a food disorder or something? All of your protein bars are lying there on your bed, exposed, you know."

"No!" I said angrily, forgetting for a moment that Gray was probably the most intimidating person I'd ever met. "I-it's not that... I don't like new places. New situations. There'll be all those people, and I won't know where to sit - and I don't want to go."

Gray sat at the end of his bed, folding his arms. "Before you dropped out of school, were you going to classes?"

"Y-yes."

"How?"

"Classes are d-different. There's something for me to focus on, which aren't people."

_I still flunked in almost everything though... _

"Are you on drugs?"

"_No._"

"Maybe you should be."

I pushed my fists into my bed. "Am I bothering you?"

"We're going down to get dinner right now."

"No. We're not. A-at least, _I'm_ not going to, anyway.

"Get your shoes."

"I'm not going down with you. You don't even like me." Blasted ginger.

"I like you fine," Gray said.

"..."

"Jesus, aren't you hungry?"

I _was._ I thought about chicken steak. Scalloped patatoes. Apple pies. And then I thought about my damned protein bars. I leaned over, compressing the knot in my stomach.

Gray sighed. "Seriously, why aren't you on drugs?"

I looked at him, almost hurt. "Why, are you a licensed therapist?"

"I'm on drugs," Gray said. "They're a beautiful thing."

* * *

><p>We ate. I thanked Gray. Then I left. Ain't no way in hell am I sitting alone with a ginger who's a druggie.<p>

I spent the whole day walking around town and letting myself know the place, as well as a few people. When I got back to the inn, it was already 9:30pm.

"Do you know Claire?" Gray asked.

I looked up from my Phone when I heard the unfamiliar name. "Who?"

"Claire. Farmer. Blonde. Cute. Boobs."

I did a double take at the last one. "What, does she live here or something?"

Gray snorted. "Duh. Why else would I bring her up? She lives near my grandpa's, you know, the old blacksmith there. You can't miss it, her farm's pretty big."

_And you are telling me this because...? _

Gray looked at me in the eye. Urgh. Blue-eyed gingers. Druggie. "You should go introduce yourself. You seem pretty pathetic on your own, so go make friends."

I threw him a displeased look. "No thanks, sorry."

Gray sighed. "I feel sorry for you, so I'm going to be your friend."

"I d-don't want to be your friend," I tried to say without stuttering to the best of my ability. "I _like_ that we're not friends."

"Me too," Gray said stoically. "I'm sorry you ruined it by being so pathetic."

I bristled indignantly. But getting offended wouldn't do anything. I briskly put on my shoes and opened the door. "... I'm going out to take a walk."

"This late at night?"

I didn't answer him.

Downstairs, I bumped into Doug. Another ginger. Awesome. This one was nice, though. Could cook, too. He seemed surprised when he saw me. "Cliff! Newcomer, right? Where you headin'? Fancy eating a night snack?"

I shook my head nervously. "Oh no, no... I was just heading for a walk outside, is all."

"Hm? At this hour?"

"Y-yes."

Doug frowned. "Well, I suppose I see nothing wrong with that. Though, there have been incidents of villagers being attacked by several... Things lately. At night, I mean. Do be careful."

Like wild dogs? Ack. "I will. See you."

So villagers were being attacked by things at night. Probably wild, viscous animals. So not my thing.

I headed to the town square. The cool night breeze and silent environment was so different from the city. No matter what time it was, there was always someone awake there. Here, in this town, it seems like everyone past 9:00pm was in bed, sound asleep.

"Hrrh..."

Eh?

_"HRRhhh.._."

Maybe there was someone in this town who was awake, after all.

No, no, now it sounded like something tearing things apart.

A wild dog tearing apart it's prey, or something...? I got my guard up, approaching the source of the sound. Doug did tell me to be careful.

Behind those bushes, behind the church?

"Oi."

And then I -

"Tonight it's my turn to feed. Go away."

- saw it.

"Back off."

Maybe I shouldn't have taken a walk, after all.

A human corpse with it's intestines sprawled out on the ground was all it took to inform me of the situation.

The lady - if I could even call her that - opened her mouth. Blood dripped where saliva should be. "Ah, wait... I've never seen you around, before." She said, trailing off. Her eyes blinked a green, and then they flashed to a disgusting red. Black filled the sides of her eyes. "You're... Human?"

Oh.

Of course I didn't say anything, why would I?

Oh, was I screaming?

Fuck.

I turned around and ran. And ran, and ran. Weird. My legs were moving, but the environment around me wasn't.

"Stop squirming, dick face."

D-dickface? Ah, how vulgar.

I was pierced. Right through. In the belly, to be precise. I was impaled by - by, this thing, and it didn't hesitate to swing me around.

"The mayor is bringing in human residents again?" The girl scoffed. Her brown hair and blonde streaks covered her frame. "Jesus."

The - the _thing_, that impaled me, threw me right on the ground with a hard impact.

It hurts. Shit, this hurts. It hurts so much, oh my fucking God. My throat couldn't bring itself to scream. Is this what they all described in the movies and books? 'Scared to silence'?

The girl, she bent down to look at me. Oh, she was pretty. I'm sure if her eyes weren't so demonic and her mouth cleared of blood, she would be beautiful. "I'm sure eating two meals in a week won't be so bad." She cooed. "You look like you're about my age. Just the right amount of meat. So tender, and easy to chew... And blood that flows so easily down the throat."

Don't forget I was still impaled. I'm sure my whole shirt was filled with blood by now.

"What... _The fuck_?" I managed to voice out.

"This must be the first ghoul claw you've seen." The girl must be referring to the thing that was piercing me through the stomach. It did look like a claw... Now that she mentioned it. It appears that she could control the 'claw'. She lifted me up, and thrashed me on the ground again. Jesus, how many times was I going to be thrown?

"I'll gently scratch the insides of your stomach for you..." She murmured. "You know, intestines are my thing. All juicy on the inside, and so soft on the out. I wonder which of my two meals this week would taste better..."

My eyes were going to close. The girl turned around all of a sudden.

The tree -

"Oh?"

The tree was falling.

"Fuck -"

The tree crushed her.

As she was crushed, the 'ghoul claw' let go of me.

And so, I slumped. And like any other cliché novel would say, I blacked out.

* * *

><p>"Did you just hear a loud noise, budum?"<p>

"A tree probably fell because of the hurricane, budum."

"You shouldn't go outside, budum."

"It's okay, budum. The hurricane's stopped."

"Huh... Under that metal beam, is that a person, budum?"

"Eh?!"

"Ah! Hurry and call the farmer, budum!"

* * *

><p>What..?<p>

"Intestines... Torn out!"

Huh? Whose intestines are torn out?

"Doctor, he - !"

Are you guys talking about me?

"It's no use... He'll die."

W-wait! Don't kill me off just like that!

"Doctor... The other body. Even though she's dead, the corpse is still... Fresh."

The cannibal chick that has a thing for human intestines?

"No, we can't do that... Sasha and Jeff will strip me off my title as a doctor."

So this doc isn't willing to save my life because of appearances. Great.

"Doctor, we have no choice!"

I like this person.

"... I suppose you are right. And as a doctor, my patient's life must come first before anything."

Huh. You're not too bad, doc.

"That's the spirit, Doctor. Let's transplant her organs into him now!"

Wait, what?

* * *

><p>The doctor's voice echoed in my mind. "Heart rate... Has stabilized!" He cried. "Operation was successful!"<p>

The female voice next to him came again. "Thank God!"

My eyes were beginning to open.

I'm just a jobless guy, barely living in the inn from the money I brought from home.

_My eyes, my eyes... _

Maybe I should be on drugs, like Gray had said. A human, eating a human. A human, eating... Me.

Oh, but that girl wasn't human at all, now, was she? And so is everyone in this town. Or at least that seemed to be what she said. Did the mayor enjoy eating people, too?

No, they're not cannibals... Those eyes; and that 'ghoul claw' - were way too scary to be considered humane.

Maybe I regret leaving the city now.

_Oh, my eyes.._. I opened them fully.

Oh, yeah, I remember the girl's eyes now.

They were a disgusting shade of red - black slit pupil, black around the edges.

One of her eyes was brighter than the other one, though. Her left eye, to be precise.

That eye, I think, was beautiful. A colour closer to the shade of blood. The left eye was crimson red.

And so was mine now.

* * *

><p><strong> AN:**

**I see you've made it this far, reader. Congratulations. I hope my writing wasn't too much of a bore for you. I doubt anyone's going to read this story in general, anyway. **

**I'm surprised I'm still in the Harvest Moon fandom. I haven't written anything, much less Harvest Moon, in a long time. I've been getting around to do this Tokyo Ghoul crossover thing lately, but I just hadn't had the time to do it. It's an awesome show, really, but I think the anime pretty much ruined the entire thing for me. It's by Studio Pierrot after all. Sigh. **

**Regarding this crossover - I was extremely torn between making this based off A New Beginning, or More Friends of Mineral Town. I had planned to make Rod - the cute ginger, that guy - the main character instead of Cliff. However, I realized that I was greatly unfamiliar with ANB's layout of Echo Village, as well as not knowing the villagers. So I decided to change the setting to Mineral Town, as I knew the place like the back of my hand.**

**i don't know where I'm going to go with this story. Hopefully it takes me somewhere.**

**I'm uploading this chapter from my phone. I hope you enjoyed it, do leave a review. Bye now.**

**Strikey**


End file.
